Spring Gardens
 

Hi everyone! Spring is right around the corner. It's time to consider what we are going to plant. It's easy to set up a small "bucket garden" anywhere. Get a few buckets or pots and hand mix some potting soil with some humus, and chicken or cow manure. It's amazingly easy to grow your own veggies and greens in a simple bucket or pot on the patio. Spinach and swiss chard grows well, and any time you want to supplement a salad, just go out and snip a few leaves and they grow right back. Radishes grow quickly, and a favorite of mine is radishes, carrots, potatoes, tossed in olive oil and roasted in the oven. A patio or deck garden is a great way to include children and other family members without a whole lot of work. Everything you grow is fresh and healthy. Mothers can sit with their children and say," what would you like to grow this year?," and write down their suggestions in a notebook, and then when you feel able, go buy the seeds and materials. It's a good way to get out into the sunshine and get a little exercise. Go do it! Why not? I expect to hear stories of wonderful bucket gardens come this spring and summer. Love, Bill

OMG, Bill! I want so badly to grow my own food, but I just feel like I would screw it up... tell me more, tell me more! And if I don't have access to manure, what is good in it's place? How much sunshine? Full sun, partial sun? Do the buckets need holes in the bottom? Hummus like I eat on a pita w/ falafel? In the soil?

Bill and Brenda,

I am laughing - not at this great idea, but at two of the comments.
Bill, spring is not right around the corner for a lot of us. Planting my
garden is a long way off. Brenda, your humus vs. hummus comment
has me giggling.

This is a great idea. I plant a veggie garden every summer. I grow
carrots, cucumbers, swiss chard, tomatoes, parsley, chives, leaf lettuce (which likes to grow in the shade) and pumpkins. I grow the pumpkins for fun - we have a short growing season and my pumpkins don't get very big.

Gardening is a lot of fun and quite easy if you do it in containers. I have a small garden which is a lot of work, but I enjoy it.

This is me and my pumpkin from 2005.

Attachment 278

PinkGirl
I used to have a huge garden when my children were small...like you I grew tomoatoes, carrots, beets, peppers, onions, potatoes, green beans, okra, parsley, lettuce, radishes....it was a huge garden, and I canned alot for use later on...my Mom still has a huge garden....I once grew a carrot that was as big as my twin girls...seriously, it weighed more than either of them, their picture was in the papaer and UPI picked it up off the wire and the picture went all over the USA,Canada & Europe....I have 2 scrapbooks filled with pictures from all over....each has a different caption...14K Carrot, Twins as big as a carrot, it is funny to look back at them...they even made Farm Wife News (never knew there was such a magazine)....people would just send them to my name and the town I lived in and I would get them...
So, after all that we are expecting some phenomenol veggies from you this year...and pictures!!!!

Wow, Pinkie, you got me laughing, too. I thought spring was right around the corner, but I guess in Canada maybe it comes in late, like maybe August or something, I don't know that much about Canada. (Do you have June, July, and August up there, or do you just jump straight from May to September?) It looks like you really are an awesome gardener, though, I love your picture of you with your pumpkin. Sheila, you sound like Queen of gardening! That sounds like one awesome carrot! Did you eat it? Just curious. I wasn't trying to imply that nobody knew anything about gardening, I just thought that alot of people think of it as hard back-breaking work, and it doesn't have to be. And, last but not least, Hucklebuck, all you really need to do is get a few 5 gallon buckets or pots, and get some potting soil. They sell composted cow manure at most Home Depots or large hardware stores, if not get some miracle grow. You can't mess anything up, trust me. It's best to just plant 2 or 3 things at first, just to get the hang of it. I see you live in Texas, just make sure if you plant seeds, that they stay moist all the time until they sprout, and maybe keep your pots where they get some shade during the hot afternoons. And, yes put some holes in the bottom of your containers. It's important not to try too much all at once, just a few containers to start off with. You can do it. Take care and good luck, Bill

I love to garden. This year in Idaho we may not get spring because winter has decided to return to Boise after a 10 year or more absence. Boise is basically in a banana belt with very mild winters (probably because we are basically in a desert.) (OMG, I must love the word "basically".) Anyhow, I am 69 years old and still run the rototiller and do all the gardening myself with "old whats his name" sitting on the deck telling me how to do it and my dog following my every step barking at the noisy machine. I plant mostly tomatoes and then freeze them whole or in sauce. Sheila, I also plant okra as I really love it. I am so glad I learned to to like it in spite of its gooeyness. Cucumbers, peppers, and beans pretty much cover the rest of it. Oh, and lots of herbs too. Root vegetable don't do particularly well in my soil as it is pretty much what they call "hard pan" around here and no amount of compost, rototilling, and gypsum has really impacted it.
I think it would be fun to keep this thread going until we harvest and compare our goodies.
Sheila, I love the carrot story and PinkGirl, I have observed, at least above my part of the world, that Canada may grow late but it sure does grow big.
Bill, I thank you for starting this thread & don't feel guilty about remembering Nicole and sending her messages.
Oh, and "old whats his name" goes by Ken.
Love & hugs,
Marlys

Cute story to add
 

A Dear Friend with MS came from the other side of the state to surprise us at chemo. In her arms was a pretty planter with berried Juniper branches, holly, some wooden fruit and a giant Amaryllis bulb. As we were called for our chemotherapy she got up to leave and handed me this treat. Just her coming so far to see us (like it is a huge state..hehe) made my day and then the planter....complete joy. Now I can have something alive to represent her friendship and vibrant personality.

Ed did not say anything about the flower planter because he did not want to insult her, but he did not know what it was. As our nurses were admiring the craftiness of our mutual friend who grows her own flowers to help her stay limber, Ed replied:

"What is that Marie?? A TURNIP??" Needless to say he provided us with his innocent humor and we were crying tears of laughter.

Long story short, I have started my growing season. In the months to come I will be planting all fresh herbs. I do not stop here because even basil is complex...Lemon basil, Chocolate basil (this year I will plant it in honor of our PinkGirl), etc. Thyme...Italian thyme, lemon thyme and so on. Ed is Italian so he needs his fresh herbs or food just is "disgustoso" (disgusting)!! We do alot of container planting and I perfer to do so, it is so fun to watch things grow and flourish. There will be containers of tomatoes, peppers, carrots and YES....turnips!! LOL!! Let's keep this thread 'GROWING'. Thanks Bill>>Believe51

OK Pink Girl, you want me to do some work....the picture occured in 1975, OK so I am getting old....I went to google Twins as big as a carrot 1975 , you can see part of the picture, artical in the Sheboygan Press , (a Wisconsin paper it was in) at the bottom of the first google page....I will have to get to my kids to retrieve and take a picture of the article.....I remember it was in the Winnepeg Free Press???, also Colorado, Idaho, California, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri....can't remember all of the papers....my kids live 45 miles away...my next trip I will retrieve!!!!! Yes, they were babies....like a couple months old...

Sheila, I've been googling and I can't
find anything about your 1975 carrot.

Here's a pic of the biggest pumpkin I've
ever grown. It was in 2005. I don't include
2006 and 2007 pumpkins because you wouldn't
be able to tell the difference between the
pumpkin and my head.

Attachment 279

http://www.google.com/url?q=http://s...FTNZCucm3L8vmQ

Pink


I hope this links it
It worked for me....love the pumpkin...great carving, will you carve mine this year???

Thanks Sheila - I could open it. Cute babies, nice carrot.

spring gardens
 

Hi,
I started with basil and garlic. I am ready to get some more things that I can grow in pots in a sunny location.
Any ideas?

no garden for me except a flower garden. that is if they aren't all flooded out.

Elaine, I planted a pot of Greek Oregano about 6 years ago in a big pot outside and it comes back fuller each year. I like Swiss chard and spinach in pots, too. They do well and you just go out to the patio and snip a few leaves whenever you want to supplement a salad. Carrots and radishes do well in pots, too. If you've never had a roasted radish, you don't know what you've been missing. First, throw some good cooking music into the CD player. Then crack open a beverage of your choice. Next, take a large baking pan (I prefer Pyrex) and throw in some Olive oil, and pour some into the dish with one hand while you sip your beverage with the other. It's important to think about whatever you normally think about when you pour olive oil at this point, or the recipe just doesn't seem the same. Next, snap your fingers, shake your hips and twirl around in a tight circle, stopping right at your cutting board, and start dicing potatoes, and flip 'em into the pan, covering the bottom. Next, take a sip of your beverage, and grab a bunch of carrots and cut them into 3 inch chunks, and throw them into the pan, (most of these ingredients should be in your bucket garden, except for the potatoes- you must steal them) Clean up your radishes and throw them into the pan too. Take a spatula and stir/flip the veggies to coat them. At this point you take a sip of your beverage, admire your work, and say "damn, that looks good". But wait, it's not over yet, you must take another sip of your beverage and take a deep breath and focus. The next step is very important. You must go back out to your bucket garden and harvest just the right amount of basil and oregano to add to the pan. Mix it in and add a little freshly ground pepper and bake in the oven at 350 degrees F until you think it's done, sipping and stirring occasionally. It's really good.

Spring gardens
 

Hi,
Thanks Bill. Yum. Yum. The veggies sound great. I will try your recipe.

what is good cooking music?
 

Bill, that does sound good (although I guess I can't do it as sipping my favorite bevvie is off limits for now). But I do have a question...What is good cooking music? does it vary by dish? I sort of like to cook to "low rider", and of course any ZZ Top is good for really rockin the skillet but on the other hand, sometimes "Cheeseburger in Paradise" is in order...

Just curious

Cooking music- Boiling crabs, steaming shrimp, etc.- Bob Marly, or any decent reggae, Jimmy Buffet. Making stews or soups should be Neil Young or Gordon Lightfoot. Baking a turkey, chicken, game hen or anything that winds up in your Ojibwa bird-snare- Beethoven or smooth, mellow jazz. Making home-made spaghetti- jazz or India Arie. Chili- classic bluegrass or Old Crow Medicine Show is acceptable. Roasting/grilling of red meats with side dishes- Sinatra, Tony Bennet, etc. Slicing/cutting large amounts of vegetables should be Seal followed by Santana's Abraxas. I hope this helps.

Finally - garden bounty.
 

So, how is everyone coming with their gardening this year?
This is for You, Bill, to show you that it is not all ferns and pines here in the misty woods, though we have those too...

Everything is quite late this year due to cooler weather, but it is finally breaking into the high 80's today and may hit 90 tomorrow. It will be short-lived here, however.

Just wanted to show a couple of my early summer bounty that we can finally enjoy. My rose bushes are getting a healthy first bloom and the strawberries are good eating now. Lilies, raspberries, etc. are on their way.